Family and Self-Help, Health and Health Care
Article
with Jan Gerber Few economists today ask whether prices are just. This is due in part to positivism and efforts to remain “value-neutral,” but ultimately, economists no longer discuss just prices because advances in economic thinking make such reasoning intractable or irrelevant. For most folks, however, concerns about just prices still matter—especially regarding housing and .. MORE
Book Review
A Book Review of The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, by Jonathan Haidt.1 When an academic writes a book for a popular audience, one of their main goals is to have an impact on the world. Jonathan Haidt’s new book The Anxious Generation is clearly .. MORE
Article
I am a pothole—an ordinary road hazard and a bane to all who drive. Messing with you and your vehicles is my vocation; it’s what I do. My genealogy is compelling enough. I come from a common road-built with dirt, six to twelve inches of #2 gravel and #57 gravel with lime dust—which is compacted .. MORE
Family and Self-Help
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Cross-country Comparisons
Incentives
Moral Reasoning
Economic Growth
Cross-country Comparisons
Liberty
Economic and Political Philosophy
econtalk-extra
Did nations get rich on the backs of other nations? Did the West get rich from imperialism? Noah Smith says no. But why not? In this episode, EconTalk host Russ Roberts welcomes Smith back to discuss these questions, based in part on a piece Smith published on his Substack. Smith tells Roberts that when most people .. MORE
econtalk-podcast
Computer Scientist and author Melanie Mitchell of Portland State University and the Santa Fe Institute talks about her book Artificial Intelligence with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Mitchell explains where we are today in the world of artificial intelligence (AI) and where we might be going. Despite the hype and excitement surrounding AI, Mitchell argues that .. MORE
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Foreign Students Help Make America Great by Michael Crow, Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2025 (electronic version) Excerpts: The administration’s actions this spring to terminate visas of international students for minor legal infractions such as traffic violations and its scrutiny of students’ social-media accounts have sent a message that foreign students aren’t wanted here. And: .. MORE
Cross-country Comparisons
I’ve seen progressives derisively refer to a “libertarian paradise” in Somalia, where the government is largely absent. While it’s true that Somalia is a good example of the importance of having enough “state capacity” to protect property rights, even Somali anarchy has some unexpected benefits. Here is The Economist: Thirty years ago, making a phone .. MORE
Explore the lasting legacies and
continued relevance of our classic titles.
My only reasons for writing a preface to a work so exhaustive, and in itself so lucid, as Professor Böhm-Bawerk’s Kapital und Kapitalzins, are that I think it may be advisable to put the problem with which it deals in a way more familiar to English readers, and to show that the various theories stated .. MORE
The Man Versus The State by Herbert Spencer was originally published in 1884 by Williams and Norgate, London and Edinburgh. The book consisted of four articles which had been published in Contemporary Review for February, April, May, June, and July of 1884. For collection in book form, Spencer added a Preface and a Postscript. In .. MORE
A Book Review of The Great Reversal: How America Gave Up on Free Markets, by Thomas Philippon.1 The Great Reversal defends a provocative and surprising thesis: the United States has given up on free markets while Europe has embraced them. As a result, Europeans pay less and get more in a lot of industries, like .. MORE
A Book Review of Escaping Paternalism: Rationality, Behavioral Economics, and Public Policy, by Mario J. Rizzo and Glen Whitman.1 Are you saving enough for retirement? How do you know? How can I tell? What if there is a benchmark against which to compare your savings? If you meet it, all is well. But what if .. MORE
VIDEO
Svetozar “Steve” Pejovich, one of the most dynamic and insightful theorists writing on property rights, reflects on his experience in economics. With characteristic sagacity and humor, he demonstrates the power that empirical cases can bring to bear on theoretical problems. Born in Belgrade, Pejovich is Professor Emeritus at Texas A&M University, where he taught for .. MORE
VIDEO
A five-part short video series on the life and contemporary relevance of Adam Smith. This video series, produced by AdamSmithWorks, can be watch as a full 38-minute feature, or in five thematic, classroom-friendly chunks. To access all, click here. Below are some discussion prompts related to this video: Part 1: The Invisible Hand .. MORE
Econlib Videos
Conversations with some of the most original thinkers of our time
The Reading Lists by Topic pages contain some suggested readings organized by topic, including materials available on Econlib. Brief reviews or descriptions are included for many items.
Supplementary materials for popular college textbooks used in courses in the Principles of Economics, Microeconomics, Price Theory, and Macroeconomics are suggested by topic.
These free resources are appropriate for teachers of high school and AP economics, social studies, and history classes. They are also appropriate for interested students, home schoolers, and newcomers to the topic of economics.
A tariff is a fancy word for a tax. The term usually refers to import duties, which are fees levied on goods entering one country from another. Import tariffs have been a controversial feature of domestic politics, international diplomacy, and economic policy for centuries. This article covers some of the basic economics of tariffs as .. MORE
The U.S. federal budget deficit is probably the world’s most cited economic statistic. In recent years U.S. debt has risen at what is widely believed to be an alarming rate and has almost tripled since 1981. [Editor’s note: this article was written in 1993. Since then the debt held by the public rose even further .. MORE
National industrial policy is a rubric for a broad range of proposed economic reforms that emerged as a unified political program in the early eighties. Had they been passed, these reforms would have given government officials additional authority, as well as the necessary fiscal and regulatory powers, to directly alter the country’s industrial structure. Proponents .. MORE
-Israel Kirzner
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